bradywwefandomcom-20200214-history
Christian
When Reso came to the World Wrestling Federation, he shortened his ring name to Christian. Reso made his television debut on September 27, 1998 at the In Your House: Breakdown pay-per-view event distracting Edge during his match against Owen Hart to reveal his allegiance to Gangrel. He won the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship in his debut match against Taka Michinoku on October 18, 1998 at the Judgment Day: In Your House PPV event. Christian, given the character of a vampire, formed an alliance with Gangrel and Edge, who, in storyline, was finally persuaded to join what became known as The Brood. The Brood briefly feuded with, then joined, The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness, but upon learning that Christian was beaten into telling Ken Shamrock the whereabouts of Stephanie McMahon, The Undertaker wanted to punish Christian (according to the storyline at the time). More loyal to the Brood than to the Ministry, Edge and Gangrel betrayed The Undertaker and rescued Christian. In 1999, Christian and Edge parted ways with Gangrel, who associated himself with The Hardy Boyz (Jeff and Matt Hardy) to form the The New Brood. As a result, they began feuding with The Hardy Boyz, and went onto compete in a ladder match at the No Mercy PPV event on October 17, 1999 for the managerial services of Terri Runnels and $100,000, which The Hardy Boyz won. At the WrestleMania 2000 PPV event on April 2, 2000, Christian and Edge defeated The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) to win the WWF Tag Team Championship in a Triangle Ladder match, which ultimately led to the creation of the Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match (TLC). Following their victory, Christian and Edge portrayed themselves as villains, shifting their in-ring personas from borderline goth to a comedic pair of "cool dudes", winning the Tag Team Championship six more times (for a total of seven). During this time, their trademark became the "five second pose", where they performed a pose in the ring for five seconds "for the benefit of those with flash photography" to mock, insult, or otherwise amuse the fans. At the SummerSlam PPV event on August 27, 2000, the duo successfully defended the tag team titles in the first-ever TLC match against The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz. At the Royal Rumble PPV event on January 21, 2001, Christian and Edge lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to The Dudley Boyz. The following month on February 25, 2001 at the No Way Out PPV event, they were unsuccessful in regaining the title, but recaptured the title on April 1, 2001 at the WrestleMania X-Seven PPV event in the second-ever TLC match involving The Hardy Boyz. Christian and Edge were defeated by The Brothers of Destruction (Kane and The Undertaker) on the April 19, 2001 episode of WWF SmackDown!, one of the promotion's several television programs. After losing the tag team title, friction arose within the team after Edge won the 2001 King of the Ring tournament on June 24 at the King of the Ring PPV event. It was also during this time that Edge was becoming a fan favorite during "The Invasion" storyline. Christian betrayed Edge shortly afterward, resulting in the two feuding for Edge's WWF Intercontinental Championship for several months, with the title changing hands several times. Christian began a singles career by winning the WWF European Championship from Bradshaw in October 2001,29 though he would later lose the title to Diamond Dallas Page in January 2002. After this, he became known for throwing tantrums in the ring when he was unable to gain a pinfall. As part of a storyline, in which Christian endured a series of losses, he announced that he was quiting the WWF. Page, however, persuaded Christian not to quit and adopted him as his protegé. Christian betrayed Page and faced off against him for the European championship at the WrestleMania X8 PPV event on March 17, 2002, in which Page defeated him. During the same event, Christian defeated Mighty Molly to win the WWF Hardcore Championship, but lost the title to Maven later on in the night.30Following WrestleMania X8, Christian formed an alliance with fellow Canadian wrestlers Lance Storm and Test in June 2002, calling themselves The Un-Americans. Together, Christian and Storm won the now named WWE Tag Team Championship, formerly the WWF Tag Team Championship, on July 21, 2002 at the Vengeance PPV event, but later lost it on the September 23, 2002 episode of WWE Raw, one of the promotion's several television programs, to the team of The Hurricane and Kane.31 He later became the sidekick of Chris Jericho, with whom he won the World Tag Team Championship (renamed WWE Tag Team Championship) on October 14, 2002.3132 Christian and Jericho lost the title in a fatal four-way elimination match, involving the teams of The Dudley Boyz, Booker T and Goldust, and William Regal and Lance Storm, on December 15, 2002 at the Armageddon PPV event.33In 2003, Christian began using many of The Rock's mannerisms, which varied from calling his fans "The Peeps" (similar to The Rock calling his fans "The People") to using The Rock's one arm raised victory pose.34 He even called himself "The New People's Champion".35 He used his new found charisma to win a nine man over-the-top-rope battle royal at the Judgment Day PPV event on May 18, 2003 for the vacant WWF Intercontinental Championship, which had been renamed the "WWE Intercontinental Championship" after the WWF was forced to rename itself "World Wrestling Entertainment".28 The following night on Raw, he appeared on Chris Jericho's talk show, The Highlight Reel, sporting a new haircut and ring attire.36 Christian would later lose the Intercontinental Championship to Booker T on the July 7, 2003 episode of Raw.28 Christian, however, regained the title at a live event on August 10, 2003 after Booker was legitimately injured.28Also in 2003, Christian and Jericho began romances with WWE Divas (the term used by WWE to refer to its female employees) Trish Stratus and Lita, respectively. As part of the angle, it was revealed to be a bet over who could sleep with their respective female first, with a Canadian dollar at stake.3738 Despite the bet, Jericho continued his relationship with Stratus, which ultimately resulted in Christian and Jericho turning on each other. At the WrestleMania XX PPV event on March 14, 2004, Christian faced Jericho in a singles match with Stratus on Jericho's side. Stratus, however, turned on Jericho, allowing Christian to defeat him.39 Stratus' then joined forces with Christian, becoming his on-screen girlfriend in the process. During a steel cage match against Jericho on the May 10, 2004 episode of Raw, Christian suffered a severe back injury, causing him to miss almost four months of in-ring action.740 He returned on the August 30 episode of Raw, resuming his feud with Jericho.41 Christian's gimmick became that of a cocky, overconfident villain, dubbing himself "Captain Charisma" in October 2004. On December 6, 2004, he was forced to wrestle as Captain Charisma, complete with a superhero costume, by Chris Jericho, who was general manager for the night. Christian was often accompanied by Tyson Tomko, whom he called his "problem solver", and usually won his matches with interference from Tomko. He wrestled with The Hurricane as part of a tag team called "The Heroes", for one night, then faced The Hurricane the following week in a "battle of the heroes". After this, the heroes aspect of the ring persona was dropped – though Christian continued to go by the nickname of "Captain Charisma". Christian was loosely paired with Edge again several times in late 2004 and early 2005. Despite being a villain, he acquired a fanbase, who he refers to as his "Peeps", "Peepulation" (a play on the word "population") or the "Christian Coalition". In April 2005, Christian participated in the first-ever Money in the Bank ladder match at the WrestleMania 21 PPV event on April 3, 2005. Following this, Christian, who had an encounter with SmackDown! superstar John Cena at the start of the year, began commenting on Cena, claiming he was a better rapper than Cena and denouncing him as "poser". Christian was noticeably cheered during these segments and was thought to be finally becoming a main eventer. Soon after Cena, then-WWE Champion, was drafted to the Raw brand, where he successfully defended the WWE Championship in a Triple Threat match against Christian and Jericho on June 26, 2005 at the Vengeance PPV event. On the June 30 episode of SmackDown!, Christian was drafted to the SmackDown! brand in the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery. He replaced The Big Show in a six-man elimination match for the newly-created SmackDown! Championship, and lost to John "Bradshaw" Layfield. Christian had previously commented that he hoped to be drafted to SmackDown! because the show needed a Canadian. He further went onto say how he was on the main event of both Raw and SmackDown! in the same week, and he was soon given his own interview segment on SmackDown! called The Peep Show.[34]On October 31, 2005, Reso's contract with WWE expired. Christian had re-signed with the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promotion. Reso did not appear for the promotion until the February 10, 2009 episode of ECW under his old ring name "Christian", confronting then–ECW Champion Jack Swagger. Later that night, Christian defeated Swagger in his first match back with the organization. Christian faced Swagger again on the February 24, 2009 episode of ECW, this time for the ECW championship; however, he failed to defeated Swagger this time around and win the ECW Title. Christian won a tri-branded 15-man battle royal on the March 10, 2009 episode of ECW, gaining entry into the Money in the Bank ladder match at the WrestleMania XXV PPV event. Christian, however, did not win the match on April 5, 2009 at WrestleMania, as CM Punk went on to retrieve the briefcase that hung above the ring. Christian won an elimination chase tournament to become the number one contender to the ECW Championship, with finals between Christian and Finlay taking place on the April 16, 2009 episode of Superstars, there-by gaining a title match at WWE's Backlash PPV event on April 26, 2009. At the event, Christian defeated Swagger to win the ECW Championship, his first world heavyweight championship in the WWE and his third overall. Christian and Swagger than began a feud over the title which lasted until Tommy Dreamer defeated Christian and Swagger in a Triple Threat Hardcore match to become the new ECW Champion at WWE's Extreme Rules PPV event on June 7, 2009. Christian fought Dreamer for the ECW Championship on the June 15, 2009 episode of Raw, but failed to regain the title. After unsuccessfully challenging for the ECW Championship at WWE's The Bash PPV event on June 28, 2009 in a Championship Scramble match, that also included Swagger, Finlay, and Mark Henry, Christian regained the ECW Title on July 26, 2009 at WWE's Night of Champions PPV event. Christian went on to retain the ECW Championship in an Extreme Rules match against Dreamer on the August 4, 2009 episode of ECW. Christian then began a rivalry with William Regal over the ECW Championship. Their first encounter took place at WWE's SummerSlam PPV event on August 23, 2009, with Christian retaining. They fought again on September 13, 2009 at WWE's Breaking Point PPV event, where Christian also retained the title.Christian faced Shelton Benjamin in a ladder match at TLC, retaining the title. The next night on Raw, he defeated the Ruthless Roundtable in a six man tag match, teaming with Kane, and The Great Khali. Category:WWE